All railways are needed

March 18, 2014

Railroads move America. From the Redwood Forest to the New York island, from the Adirondacks to the Bakken, they are all the same.

Besides hitchhiking, rail travel is the cheapest mode of transportation for all methods above ground. One train cart needs only one gallon of diesel to travel 492 miles. If diesel costs $4.92 per gallon, 35,000 gallons of oil gets to travel at the cost of one penny per mile.

Take away rail, and you take away America's predominant global advantage: the cheapest mode of transportation.

How important is your car? Does not your car provide you great freedom? How important is your phone? Does not your phone provide you the vehicles in which to transport your communications, your ideas, your uniqueness, yourself?

Removing the rail lines between Big Moose and Saranac Lake will serve but one purpose: engendering a future without proper, efficient means of transport. Removing rail lines for bike trails is selfish, shortsighted and foolish.